Foreign affairs
Ukraine
Opinion
Edward Lucas: Snow Meeting is Davos for people who know what is going on
The Snow Meeting is a highlight of the European security calendar. It is like Davos, except that it is smaller and full of people who really know what is going on (Davos is full of people who would like to know what is going on). […]
Opinion
Opinion: How Mikhail Khodorkovsky came to identify with Putin II
This January, the Vilnius-based Eastern Europe Studies Centre organized a big two-day international event for experts, politicians and intellectuals. The centrepiece of the second day of the conference was an address by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. […]
Uncategorized
President Grybauskaitė: Russia is engaging in “territorial aggression” in Ukraine
There’s evidence confirming that Russia is taking direct part in the ongoing military operation in eastern Ukraine, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said on Thursday. […]
Foreign affairs
Lithuanian UN ambassador: Russia wants to legitimize territorial gains in Ukraine
Lithuanian’s Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council Raimonda Murmokaitė on Wednesday accused Russia of seeking to legitimize its territorial gains in Ukraine, achieved by separatists after an official truce. […]
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US President Obama addresses Ukrainian conflict in State of the Union Address
President Barack Obama, during his State of the Union address to the American Congress on Tuesday night, spoke about the situation in Ukraine. He advocated the use of diplomacy to uphold the principle that bigger nations cannot bully the small. […]
European Union
EU’s Federica Mogherini discusses Ukraine and security with John Kerry.
On Wednesday, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, met with US Secretary of State, John Kerry. The two discussed a number of issues during a luncheon meeting, in particular the situation in Ukraine, the recent wave of terrorist violence in France and other EU countries, energy independence, and other security issues. […]
Uncategorized
American analyst Janusz Bugajski: There are things in Russia that West fear more than Putin
Western powers are less fearful of Putin than of the chaos and unpredictability that the massive nuclear country might sink into once he is gone, says Janusz Bugajski, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). […]
Opinion
Opinion: How Mikhail Khodorkovsky came to identify with Putin
This January, the Vilnius-based Eastern Europe Studies Centre organized a big two-day international event for experts, politicians and intellectuals. The centrepiece of the second day of the conference was an address by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. […]
Opinion
Opinion: Khodorkovsky’s speech in Vilnius or prudence vs. clatter of dreamers
Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s visit in Vilnius has triggered a wave of emotional reactions that seem to have overwhelmed the critical thinking faculties and political sense of angry observers. Absolutely scandalous – Khodorkovsky dared not to say that he would immediately give back Crimea if he became Russia’s leader! […]
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Russian government wants to monitor students’ contacts with EU diplomats
Russia‘s Education and Science Ministry wants to be informed about the meetings of university students with the staff of the European Union (EU) Mission to Russia, which is headed by Lithuania’s former foreign minister Vygaudas Ušackas, Russian media said on Wednesday. […]
Defence
Lithuanian defence minister invites Canada to contribute to Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian brigade
On 20 January, Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas met with Canadian Defence Minister Robert Nicholson at Canada‘s National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. Both ministers addressed a number of common security and defence issues, including joint efforts to support Ukraine. […]
Uncategorized
EU will not sacrifice Crimea for peace in Donbass, Lithuanian minister says
Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevičius says that he does not believe that the European Union (EU) will ever recognize the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in exchange for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. […]
Uncategorized
President Grybauskaitė’s advisor: No place for appeasement politics in Ukraine
Chief foreign policy advisor to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė, Jovita Neliupšienė, says that Russia‘s direct involvement in conflict in the Donbass region is becoming more and more obvious, while the current ceasefire is only relative. […]
Opinion
European Union
Lithuanian foreign minister: EU should guide its decisions by actual situation in Russia, not illusions
In its discussion of the relations with Russia, the European Union (EU) should act in accordance to the actual situation rather than illusions, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius said on Monday upon arrival at a meeting in Brussels. […]
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Lithuanian conservative leader going to Ukraine to advise on reforms
The leader of the opposition Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats, former prime minister Andrius Kubilius, is going to Ukraine this week to join a group of experts for a discussion on economic reforms. […]
European Union
EP resolution: Sanctions on Russia should stay until it changes aggressive policy
EU sanctions on Russia should stay in place until Moscow changes its aggressive policy in Ukraine, respects the ceasefire agreement, withdraws its troops and stops supporting separatists, the European Parliament said in a resolution supported on Thursday. […]
Foreign affairs
Linkevičius discusses bilateral and regional cooperation with Latvian, Estonian and Slovakian foreign ministers
On 16 January, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius met with Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Foreign Minister of Latvia, and Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, Foreign Minister of Estonia, who are taking part in the Snow Meeting. […]
Uncategorized
Piontkovsky in Vilnius: Crimea annexation laid “philosophical” grounds for any invasion
During the annexation of Crimea, Russia‘s President Vladimir Putin laid “philosophical foundation” for invasion of any country with a Russian-speaking community, said well-known Russian political scientist and publicist Andrey Piontkovsky in Vilnius on Thursday. […]